MetroWest photographer exhibits at exclusive Boston club

Willard Traub's photographs of a landmark carpet factory in Framingham's Saxonville neighborhood are being exhibited at the St. Botolph Club along with works by five prestigious area photographers.

Chris Bergeron

Willard Traub's photographs of a landmark carpet factory in Framingham's Saxonville neighborhood are being exhibited at the St. Botolph Club along with works by five prestigious area photographers.

A fixture at the Saxonville Studios on the second floor of the former factory on Concord Street, he is showing three color images which emphasize the 19th-century building's brick facades and distinctive architectural features.

A Sherborn resident, Traub said, "The photos speak for themselves."

"I've been taking pictures of different views of that building every year since 1996. We've used it several times on invitations of our Open Studios event. It's a great challenge to look at the same thing over and over again and come up with something new," he said.

The show, "Athens of America: Six Boston Photographic Artists and Their Printer" explores the collaborative relationship between the exhibitors and Color Services of Needham which prints their work.

Traub said he's "honored to be in the company of the other photographers" in the exhibit including Laura McPhee, Jim Dow, David Hilliard, Abelardo Morell and Shellburne Thurber.

He said one of the reasons for his inclusion in the show was his 34-year collaborative relationship with Marc Elliott, one of the three founders and chief operating officer of Color Services.

A professional photographer specializing in architecture, Traub described collaborating with Elliott as "a dialogue between an artist and printer who wants to know what an exhibit is really about."

"I've always liked working with Marc and his staff. When you find somebody who listens like they do, you keep going back," he said.

Founded in 1988, Color Services prints in a wide variety of formats including color, black-and-white, pigment prints and folio production as well as mounting and framing photos.

Elliott said his company works closely with photographers "as interpreters to help them achieve their signature look."

"We've worked with Will (Traub) making prints for him for a long time. We're familiar with his tastes. Our role is not to homogenize different artists' work or make things look the same. The finished print has a certain value that's subjective that the artist recognizes," he said.

Traub, who survived an 18-month battle with a blood disease that required a bone marrow transplant, is planning an exhibit of photographs, prose and poetry to be shown next year at the Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham.

Photographer Willard Traub may be reached by e-mail at imagewil@comcast.net.